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Special Ranged Combat
High Rate of Fire Some weapons have a rate of fire that indicates they can fire multiple times each turn. This is explained in the section below on semiautomatic weapons. If a ranged combatant fires multiple times in one round at different targets, a -1 rank penalty is applied for each target after the first. Thus, if a shooter can fire four shots every turn (indicated by a –4 in the rate of fire in the listing for that weapon), and decides to fire at four different targets in one turn, the first would be unmodified, the second would be at a -1 penalty, the third at a -2, and the fourth at a -3. If he shoots at only two different targets, the first three bullets at one and then the fourth at another, the first three shots would be unmodified and the fourth would be at a -1 rank penalty. A combatant with a weapon with a high rate of fire may attack at the beginning of every turn until his magazine runs out. Aiming A character firing on individual targets can choose to make a carefully aimed shot. The character must tell the GM that he is going to take an aimed shot. For every extra turn above his Rate of Fire that the shooter spends aiming his shot, the character gains a +1 rank success rate shift to their attack roll, up to a maximum of six. When the turns spent aiming are over, the character may then fire immediately, as though it were his turn. After this shot is taken, their next turn will occur a number of turns later equal to their rate of fire, as usual, unless they make another aimed shot. Suppressive Fire Suppressive fire is different than selecting a target and firing at it once per round. When a combatant decides they want to lay suppressive fire, they become a “permanent fixture” in combat until they stop. They are officially out of combat, which means they do not have to make rolls or do anything but sit back, enjoy the fun, and make life difficult for their enemies. As long as their gun still has ammo and the suppressive fire is in play, any enemy character that tries to come out from behind cover or move across the battlefield will have to make an uncontested Luck roll, with a -1 rank penalty for every opponent laying suppressive fire. This roll must be made every turn that they are still out in the open for any amount of their full movement. If the Luck roll is failed, the closest shooter to them can immediately roll a free attack as usual, using all applicable bonuses and penalties. Allies to the shooters do not need to worry about getting hit unless the GM decides the conditions call for it. Suppressive fire lasts as many turns (not rounds) as the gun has bullets in its magazine. If the gun can fire more than one bullet per turn, this is how many bullets will be expended per turn, unless this mode can be switched to single fire. Treat weapons that fire more than one shot per turn as more than one shooter laying suppressive fire. For example, if the gun shoots four bullets per turn, treat it as four enemies laying suppressive fire. Once the shooter has run out of ammo, he must spend the normal amount of time reloading, during which his enemies are free to move without getting shot. Firing Into a Melee Firing into a melee is a dangerous thing. When a shooter decides to aim at a character engaged in melee and misses, the GM should decide based on the positions of the shooter and his target whoever else may be a potential victim of the shot regardless of which side they are fighting for. Starting with the closest of these and moving further away, each combatant should roll Luck. On any level of success, the bullet misses and the next combatant rolls. In the event of a failure, the combatant rolling the failure has been hit. The GM may then choose where the target most likely would be hit and issues the base damage for the weapon being fired. Throwing a Grenade A combatant who throws a grenade or other explosive device can either throw it at a target, in which case roll normally as you would a regular attack roll, or at a location. When throwing at a location, only a successful uncontested Thrown Weapons skill roll is required. On a failure, the grenade lands 30 feet away from the intended location in a direction chosen by the GM. On a Poor result, it lands 20 feet away. On a Fair result, it lands 10 feet away. On a Good result, it lands 5 feet away, and on an Excellent result, it lands exactly where intended. The GM may wish to choose the direction of this deviation randomly using a dice roll. Automatic Weapons Automatic weapons are any ranged weapon that can be fired repeatedly by holding down the trigger. Such weapons can fire more than one bullet in one single turn. It can be used either to spread fire (as explained below), to fire a full load into one target, or to fire at multiple targets. First, the shooter must choose which of these he wishes to do. To fire a full load into a single target, every bullet the weapon can fire in one turn after the first acts as a bonus of +1 success rank to the damage (not the attack itself). Thus, if a gun can fire four rounds in one turn, the shooter gets a bonus of +3 ranks to his base damage. If he wishes to fire at multiple targets, he must choose how many different targets he wants to fire at and divide the number of bullets he has among them as he chooses. He then rolls multiple attacks, using standard attack procedure. For every bullet after the first he fires at any one target, he gets a damage bonus as explained above. However, when changing targets, he gets a -1 attack penalty for each additional target. Spread Fire Some weapons, such as machine guns, shotguns, and flamethrowers, have a certain spread. The size of this spread is given in the individual weapons listing. Some can be enhanced by waving the weapon in an arc to maximize area. The attacker will have a chance of hitting every target in a triangle-shaped area, where the shooter is at the tip of the triangle and the base of the triangle is a number of feet wide equal to the spread value for the weapon being used. It’s much easier to calculate this using miniatures, otherwise the GM will have to just make his best guess as to who is effected. The shooter rolls once on the appropriate weapon skill, and every potential target can try to do whatever they feel they must to avoid injury. Their rolls act as Detractive rolls to the damage they receive. For every five feet away from the initial target, the damage of the attack is reduced by one rank, meaning the further outside the initial range, the less the impact of the attack. If the GM deems it appropriate for the weapon, the attacker can sway the weapon back and forth to increase this range. The reach of this new spread range is up to the GM’s discretion. Category:Combat Rules